


Eclipse

by bornforwar_archivist



Category: Xena: Warrior Princess
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-31
Updated: 2006-12-31
Packaged: 2020-03-13 08:09:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18936892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bornforwar_archivist/pseuds/bornforwar_archivist
Summary: By Secular AtrophyA lunar eclipse and a god. Everything else is superfluous.





	Eclipse

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Delenn, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Born For War](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Born_For_War), which closed in 2015. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in March 2016. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Born For War collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/bornforwar).
> 
> Disclaimer: I've got no money and no life. Doesn't that mean that I should be able to keep at least Xena? Oh fine, take your lousy warrior princess, too.  
> Rated- PG  
> Violence- Some references to blood?  
> Sex- Nope.  
> Language- Meh. Pretty clean.  
> Subtext- She did what?  
> Dedication- To LK: here's to living vicariously through Ares and Xena.

The voices drifted in the wind.

"Dammit, Xena, I don't see why you have to be so stubborn about this."

"Look, you can see the shadow moving."

"There's no way you could have found out about that seige if some god hadn't told you. You were too far away."

"My mother used to say that when the moon darkened like that, some huge dog in the sky was eating it bite by bite. That's why the dark part is round."

"I just want the name of that god."

"'Course, that story doesn't explain why the light would come back."

"That was direct interference. It's against the rules."

"Did you ever hear the fable about the monkey and the moon?"

"Some god is cheating me, and I want to know who! Are you even listening to me?"

Ares looked down into the carefully blank eyes. She was laughing at him. Her eyes were steady on his, and in her hands spun a seeding blade of grass, its tiny pods whirling in little blurs of green. In the red light of the half-eaten moon, her face had lost all focus, her mouth was a dark smudge that slowly turned up at the corners while he watched.

"What monkey?" he asked.

"The monkey saw the reflection of the moon in a pond, and he wanted it, so he tried to catch it in his paws. He touched the water, and the moon vanished."

The light was bleeding back into the air, and her skin paled, and her eyes deepened.

"I'll give you the moon if you want it," he said. "Artemis still owes me a favour or two."

She only smiled more. "Who're you calling a monkey?"

Gabrielle turned over in her bedroll with a tiny murmur.

Ares sighed. "You're heading to Kalkios tomorrow to intercept those raiders you've been tracking. I'll be watching you."

Xena leaned back to see the last shadows glide off the face of the moon. "I know."


End file.
